Since the mid 1980s endoscopic sinus surgery has been the surgical method of choice in the United States for dealing with chronic sinusitis. But as with any surgery there can be complications. One common complication stems from post-operative laxity of middle turbinates, which allows the middle turbinate to move laterally during the healing phase and form adhesions to the lateral nasal wall ultimately resulting in scarring. This can ultimately result in closure of the very sinus cavity that the surgery was attempting to open.
Several strategies have been developed to prevent turbinate lateralization. For example, a standard needle and thread on a needle holder has been used to suture the middle turbinates medially to the septum of the nose. By doing this, the middle turbinates are fixated away from the lateral surgical field, in which they could adhere post-surgically thereby avoiding post surgical blocking. This technique is makeshift, cumbersome, time consuming, and difficult because of a lack of a simple delivery technique. ‘Stapling’ devices have also been used but those devices are too large and cumbersome to utilize effectively. An implantable device to secure the middle turbinate to the septum has also been tried but implants are also problematic in surgery. All techniques known thus far are frustratingly time consuming, cumbersome, obstructive of good visualization, and have therefore not been widely adopted by the surgical community.
New, easier and simpler devices and methods are needed for preventing the lateral movement of turbinates and the subsequent formation of scar tissue following endoscopic sinus surgery.